Flag Burning Quotes

• A flag is supposed to represent everything that a country does. It doesn't only represent the good things. If you burn the flag, you're burning the flag for what you perceive to be the bad things the country has done. it's only a symbol. It's only a piece of cloth.

  George Carlin

  Country, Burning, Done

  George Carlin (2009). “Last Words”, p.122, Simon and Schuster

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• We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents.

  William J. Brennan

  Freedom, Flags, Flag Day

  "Dear President-Elect Trump, this Free Speech thing is Way Out of Control" by Anne Clendening, www.elephantjournal.com. November 30, 2016.

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• If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

  William J. Brennan

  Government, Expression, Ideas

  "Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397". 1989.

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• You believe that flag burning shows disrespect towards those who have fought to preserve our freedoms. Punishing protestors shows an even more profound disrespect for the ideals that these people died for. An intact flag is worthless if it no longer stands for freedom. A flag burned to ashes challenges us to remember just exactly what freedom is.

  Mary Ruwart

  Freedom, Believe, People

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• People were hysterical about Communism the way people today are hysterical about flag burning. I'm really against these people who try to show that they're great patriots, because they're not thinking, they're just being hysterical.

  Julia Child

  Thinking, People, Trying

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person's exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?

  Edward Kennedy

  Exercise, Views, Order

  Constituent letter, 1997.

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• If the popular thing to do is to say you have to ban flag burning, even if it ultimately means we're compromising a core principle of who we are as a republic, I don't think Donald Trump really thinks that that deeply into it.

  Megyn Kelly

  Mean, Thinking, Principles

  Source: www.npr.org

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• A bunch of bong-smoking, America-bashing, flag-burning, yoga-posing, incense-burning, dolphin-saving, salmon-eating hypocrites. These are the sensitive, liberal people who are always yelling about people's freedom of speech and expression, unless you happen to say something that pisses them off.

  Richard Jeni

  Yoga, Hypocrite, Yelling

  "A Big, Steaming Pile Of Me". Documentary, Comedy, 2005.

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• At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that.

  Daniel Fried

  Country, Flags, Violence

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• Even if the flag burning amendment does become law, the larger problem will remain of how to respectfully dispose of older, tattered flags. Well, fortunately the U.S. official Flag Code has a suggestion about this. "The flag, when it is in such a condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning." Owwwwcchh. In response, the House Republicans are calling for tattered flags to be kept alive via a feeding tube.

  Jon Stewart

  Law, House, Suggestions

  "The Daily Show". www.imdb.com. 1996.

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• The image by Barry Blitt of Barack Obama and Michelle in the White House with him dressed as a terrorist, her dressed as an Angela Davis character, a flag burning in the chimney, a portrait of Bin Laden on the wall is an image I'm extremely proud of.

  Francoise Mouly

  Wall, Character, White

  Source: bigthink.com

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